For years, parents have told their kids to get off the couch because watching too much TV will rot their brains. Dr. Jaye Derrick, a research scientist from UB's Research Institute on Addictions, has just proved those parents wrong.
A study done by Derrick found that watching or just thinking about a television re-run makes people feel energized and actually restores self-control as well as enabling people to spend an extended time on difficult tasks.
The study originated from the idea that people generally turn to watching television when they are stressed or need to relax, according to Derrick. The study was conducted to find out if people relax more while watching re-runs or new episodes of their favorite shows.
The study was conducted using voluntary psychology 101 students. Some kept daily diaries and recorded when they watched television and how they felt about the shows they watched.
Other studies that have been conducted concerning this topic have found that watching re-runs will boost the viewer's willpower and restored their energy for daily tasks. This study conducted by Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist from Stanford University, was a two-part study similar to what Derrick did.
One part of McGonigal's study was keeping a diary of their daily routines and energy levels. Those results proved that writing about a favorite re-run helped people "stick longer to daily tasks." While the real world study of observing people watching television proved "re-runs helped people recover from a hard day and boost their energy," according to psychologytoday.com.
Both this study and the study done at UB produced similar results.
Derrick found people have a limited pool of mental resources and as people use these resources on strenuous tasks, their ability to focus diminishes. Watching re-runs allows the mind to take a break and relax.
The act of watching a re-run is relaxing because the viewer already knows the characters and what the characters will say and do. However, the brain is still "interacting" with the show, enabling it to stay active enough, according to Derrick.
"The one thing that surprised me was that I did not think it was specific to re-runs or re-watching movies or re-reading books," Derrick said. "I thought it would be the same for watching new movies or reading new books or watching new TV shows."
Brianna Harris, a graduate student who also teaches social psychology and scientific inquiry, feels that people who watch their favorite television shows possibly feel more energy because it take less effort and less attention to watch their favorite shows.
According to Harris, she said attention is like a muscle and when you stretch it too much it gets tired.
"There is something relaxing about dealing with familiar fictional world rather than a non-familiar fictional world," Derrick said.
All psychological studies need to be approved by the university or by the federal government in order to receive funding. Harris said Derrick's study probably used the introductory psychology students because they are the most cost efficient and readily available.
Derrick hoped to find 160 students to participate in the experiment and ended up having about 205 students participate. Derrick said the more participants, the higher the significance of the findings from the study.
Esther Ji, a senior psychology major, said she had no idea that watching television re-runs would make you feel less energized. She doesn't believe it.
Ji watches re-runs all the time and feels there is no difference when watching them or not when she is in a stressful situation. Ji said watching television shows is more of a way to kill time than to make her feel more energized and alert.
She thinks if someone has seen the episode already, there is less to expect.
Derrick agrees with that and said that just watching whatever is on television or even a new episode of a TV show doesn't provide the same benefits as watching re-runs.
She argues watching TV isn't bad. She acknowledges the studies done that say TV could increase aggression and is contributing to the obesity epidemic, but she has found watching re-runs will increase someone's willpower, focus and overall well-being.
Email: features@ubspectrum.com
Additional reporting by Senior Life Editor Rachel Kramer
